Clustering in Space Versus Dispersing Over Space

摘要

I began this chapter by hypothesizing that two types of economies are affecting regional economic growth, namely, agglomeration economies/diseconomies and dispersion economies/diseconomies. A number of analysts reviewed above show that this may be so. More empirical tests, however, still need to be made. No analyst has tested the hypothesis I put forth, partially perhaps because the concept of dispersion economies is only two-years old (introduced in 2003). I created the concept based on a belief that the economies from dispersing economic activity is an important factor affecting regional development, but regional analysts have not yet systematically examined the effects. I think that the increasing number of global and regional supply-chain analyses may be a good place to start with the empirical tests. In fact, my own research staff and I have several case studies in the United States and the People's Republic of China (China) that may provide sources for such tests. We had a different objective for our work on supply chains for the Chicago metalworking sector (Polen-ske et al. 1996), but the plant surveys we conducted may provide some information we could use.